Kampot Pepper

How I became the "Pepper Guy"....

In May of 2016 on a trip to Cambodia, I went to a town in southern Cambodia called Kampot to visit a friend. Kampot is a beautiful little town in the mountains, near the Gulf of Thailand.

I had heard of Kampot Pepper before, and wanted to give it a try. Of course, going in I thought that it would taste the same as the pepper I bought at home, and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. “All pepper is the same” right?

It was love at first taste! I couldn't believe what a difference there was, and how much flavor Kampot Pepper had. It was amazing! I never posted food pics, but this time I posted pictures of the pepper on Facebook.

A friend of mine who runs a food truck and has much better culinary skills than I do, asked me to bring some Kampot Pepper back to Edmonton for him. I was surprised to hear that it wasn't readily available, and the light bulb went off. The pepper had all of the things people look for in food, organic, fair trade, fresh, could even be traced back to the farmer, and of course I knew first hand, that it tasted GREAT! My contract in IT was coming to an end, and after 30 years in the IT business, I had had enough and was ready for a new adventure. This opportunity fit perfectly as I wanted to spend as much time in Cambodia as possible.

I was conveniently in Kampot, so I did my research by checking out all the farms and finding the best supplier. I found Farmlink, a co-op that buys from over 120 small farmers. They were head and shoulders above the other farms in terms of quality and cleanliness. They are the best of the best! They taught me all they could in a couple days, and I became their exclusive supplier for Canada.

I brought my first batch of Kampot Pepper back to Canada in my luggage, and started my pepper company.

It's been an amazing experience, and so much fun watching people find out that Kampot Pepper is the best pepper in the world! If you haven’t tried it, you should, because NOT ALL PEPPER IS THE SAME!!!